Similarities
by trying to be unique
Summary: By watching Sharon's interaction with her daughter Rusty is able to see the similarities between himself and her and because of this he shares something with Sharon.
1. Chapter 1

The team was in the murder room diligently tacking pictures of the newest crime scene on the white-board and scribbling down the pertinent fact that corresponded. A typical face to the room at this hour would have been Rusty coming in from school with the most recent math packets and English assignments. However, it was not Rusty who Lt. Provenza saw walking into their offices, far from it. The person entering the room was a young woman. She was tall with a graceful walk, one that did not require high hells to assert her elegant grace or the fact that she was actually a girl. Her full brown hair fell past her shoulders and contrasted with her green eyes. Provenza wasn't sure what to think of this stranger considering that they had not invited any witnesses of the crime to come give statements and he felt comfortable confirming that this young woman had nothing to do with any form of law enforcement considering she was dressed in skinny jeans, a white t-shirt, and blue leather flats with a brown leather messenger bag hanging unimportantly from her body.

As the young woman looked around for whatever or whomever she came into the to room to get or see Lt. Provenza commanded Sanchez to see what it was the woman wanted by grumpily giving him a hand signal that meant get up and do your job so that I don't have to.

Sanchez jumped up and started walking towards the young woman, "May I help you?" he asked in a husky deep voice.

Just then Sharon, noticing the new addition to her offices, excited her captain's office and with a happy slightly concerned look she embraced the girl in a protective welcoming hug.

"Katie, sweetie what are you doing here?"

Sharon knew something was wrong with the familiar figure who stood before her. The girl had lost a noticeable amount of weight, Sharon guessed from constant running. Furthermore, the usually very communicative young woman had not called her in over a week.

The girl shyly pulled away from the older woman simply saying that she had a few days off and thought she would stop by for a visit.

Sharon was immediately skeptical of the vague answer she had received but decided not to push the subject. Instead she turned her attention to introducing the still stranger to her squad.

"Everyone, this my daughter, Catherine."

Catherine waved a small dutiful response with a half smile and one of her arms encompassing nearly all of her small body.

The team responded with smiles here and there and few waves hello from their prospective desks. Their newest case was consuming most of their time and as curios as they were to learn more about one of their captain's children and possible details into the elusive captain's personal life they really did not have the time just then. So as the team plowed back into their research Sharon led her daughter into her office so they could talk privately.

Catherin Marie Raydor was twenty-one and headed into her senior year of college at University of California, Berkeley. She was majoring in marketing with a minor in psychology. During her summer before senior year she was completing her required internship in order to receive her degree. She was lucky to be accepted on an intern base level to the marketing team of a Northern California publishing company. She was an intern so her opinion meant very little and she spent the better part of the workday fetching coffee or preparing the conference rom for the next meeting. But she was still able to sit in on a few meetings and absorb the intricacies of marketing a potential New York Times bestseller and she loved every minute of it.

At least three days a week on the drive home from work to her rented room in a house of boarders who were mostly meandering, hippie, nomads exploring the northern California cliffs Katie would excitedly call her mom and gush about how great the internship was going and how she hoped they would offer her a full time position one she graduated.

Catherine was bubbly and sweet. She could talk to almost everyone but she was also rather shy. When she was younger her shyness was significantly worse. Sharon used to take her hand and walk with her everywhere from the grocery store to school, calming her fearful daughter by the promise that she would not let go of her hand until Katie was ready. It took until she was twelve for Katie to walk into school on her own.

Sharon was always incredibly patient with her daughters shyness and as Katie grow older she grew exceedingly more confident. By the time she was in college she became involved in several campus groups and although a trace amount of shyness still prevailed Catherine was a confident albeit quiet and reserved young woman. She had a small core group of friends who all loved each other and never ceased communicating even in the long summer months when college kids so easily lose touch. Catherine took pride in the relationships she developed with other people. Granted she didn't have a lot of friends, but she really didn't want a lot of friends. So when she met David her sophomore year and they easily hit it off, Catherine was content to foster this one relationship with a genuinely nice guy whom she got along with. Catherine would rather build strong relationships with a few people rather than have meaningless relationships with her entire graduating class. This is why she nurtured her relationship with David for two years now, and she was contentedly happy with it.

When Sharon saw her youngest child standing in the murder room she knew something was wrong. Katie had said several times over the summer that she was too busy with work to come home and visit. She felt bad, but her internship was going so well she didn't want to risk anything with it. Sharon had not minded at all. She took pride in her successful children but she also knew her daughter very well and Katie was the kind of person to push through any issues she was having until she was physically and mentally too exhausted to push any further.

Those were the times when the troubles and issues all became too much to process and think about. During all these times all that Katie could do was fall apart, let everything out, and start over with a fresh mind.

* * *

It had happened so many times before. Sharon vividly remembered her fragile nine-year-old daughter walking to the car form school after a father-daughter day. Katie had not told her mom about the school event because Katie didn't want to hurt her feelings. Instead, she didn't face the issue until she saw all the dads walking to the class with their little girls by their sides. Katie looked on in horror as her peers curled onto their dad's laps and painted a picture together while she sat at her empty desk suppressing her overwhelmingly dejected feelings. Of course this was on the cusps of one of Jack's whirlwinds visits through LA and by the time Katie saw her mom in the carpool lane she fell apart, sitting on the curb crying her eyes out. Sharon immediately picked her shaking, hurt baby up off the street and sat in the back seat of her police issued vehicle stoking her daughters head and back until she calmed down and they could go home.

* * *

Sharon could tell be looking at her daughter that this was one of those times. She looked at her daughter standing in her office taking in every minute detail from the way Katie pushed her hands deep into the small front pockets of her jeans to the way she evasively tried to avoid her mothers gentle, concerned stair.

"Honey, what happened?" Sharon asked gently, while tucking a piece of her daughter's thick hair behind her ear.

Tears immediately started brimming in Katie's eyes and rather than fall into her mother for comfort she became panic stricken and in a weak, scared voice she barely cracked out

"Not here. I can't fall apart in front of everyone."

Sharon understood her daughter's need for privacy. She gently stroked her daughters face wiping away the few tears that had escaped. Sharon nodded that she understood then she took her house keys from her desk and placed them in Katie's' hand. Sharon took her daughters shoulders steading her and told her to drive home, get comfy, and they could talk when she got there.

Catherine nodded with a weak response before giving her mother a deep hug and heading quickly to the police station elevators so that the squad would not see too much of her tear streaked face.


	2. Chapter 2

As Rusty walked to his usual desk after school he noticed the busy murder room and concluded easily that the team had yet another case they were working on. As he went to sit at his desk he diligently looked around him to make sure he wasn't being watched before he swiftly pulled yet another letter from his backpack and quickly stashed the menacing note in the cabinet above his desk.

Since the first letter he received and the reaction it got from both DDA Rios and Sharon he had stopped telling people they were still coming regularly. He used to receive one every two to three weeks; however, recently they had started coming much more regularly and now he was getting one almost every other day. He had long ago stopped opening them. He knew what they contained, harsher and more terrifying threats. The last one he had opened had been over a month ago and it contained the promise that this shadowed stranger would find him so they could repent their sins together. Rusty was so shaken be the letter he could barely hide it form Sharon and part of him didn't want to.

Rusty had become very comfortable with Sharon over the past year and he truly viewed her as his mother. He wished he could be brave enough to take the armful of letters to Sharon and let her take hid burden and comfort him that everything would be okay, and nothing was going to happen to him, and he could live with her for as long as he wanted, and she would keep him sage no matter what. Rusty didn't want to carry this burden alone, but he had always done everything for himself and on his own that he had no idea how to ask for help.

The issue went beyond his stubbornness to take care of himself. Rusty was convinced that once the letters where discovered he would immediately be taken away from Sharon and either shoved into witness protection or placed in a foster home with eight other kids and hateful parents who used them for the social aid check that came every month rather than to provide them with a safe home. It had happened before and Rusty would not let it happen again.

Sharon had promised him that he could stay with her but Rusty was still scared that even if Sharon wanted him to stay she would push him to leave under the pretense of keeping him safe.

He couldn't do it anymore. He had never lived a stable life. From his mothers neurotic behavior to the nightmare he endured living on the street and how he was so close to being stable, to having a family, to being normal. All he wanted was to be normal and if he acknowledged the letters then his small world of normal that he had managed to create would slip through his fingers and he would be on his own again.

No! He could not tell Sharon about the letters he could not handle the fallout and he wasn't sure Sharon would fight for him the way he needed her to.

Rusty braced himself, as he always did, to have a steel resolve before he went around the corner to find Buzz and get the next round of homework assignments.

The day ended earlier than the team expected and it was only six o'clock when Sharon tolled Rusty to get his things together.

The two met up outside of Sharon's office where Rusty said almost immediately that he was done with his homework and if could watch a movie when they got home.

Sharon smiled at him and said that she didn't mind but that Catherine was waiting for them at the condo and it might be nice to have dinner together.

Rusty looked confused.

"I thought she was too busy with her internship to come visit."

"I thought so too, but the truth is I'm not sure she's doing so well."

The two looked at each other and Rusty didn't seem to understand.

"Doesn't she talk to you all the time? Wouldn't she tell you if something was wrong?"

Sharon looked at him tenderly, recognizing the similarities between her daughter and foster son.

"Sometimes Rusty it's hard to recognize and talk about the hard things you are going through. Katie doesn't address an issue she has until it's impossible to avoid and at that point it's sometimes more difficult to deal with.

Rusty looked at his feet awkwardly.

"But what if she doesn't want to burden you with her problems?"

"I'm her mother. It's my job to take care of my children and even if I can't fix their problems I'm there to comfort them and be on their side. When someone is carrying too much and having trouble it doesn't do them and good to keep it to themselves and it doesn't hurt someone who cares about them to listen to them. Katie has tried so hard to be independent that she forgets I'm here when she needs me."

Rusty didn't say anything and the two headed home in silence.


	3. Chapter 3

Sharon unlocked her front door and she and Rusty walked inside. As Sharon flipped on the front hallway lights Rusty asked if he could do anything for dinner. Sharon distractedly responded that he could pull out some salad materials and she thought there was plenty of chicken and rice leftover from a few nights ago.

After Sharon put her purse down she looked around the living-room and kitchen. Rusty knew she was looking for Catherine and he got concerned that she might have left early not wanting to bother anyone.

Before pulling the food out Rusty walked down the hall to throw his backpack in his room and that's when he noticed Catherine. Sharon's bedroom door was open and there was the outline of Catherine on top of her bed.

Rusty turned around and gestured toward Sharon that Catherine was in her room. Sharon in turn came walking calmly down the hall and turned to stand in her doorway with Rusty watching behind her.

Sharon looked at her hurt baby girl lying on her side wrapped up in one of Sharon's black sweaters with her back facing the door. Sharon had no idea what or who was causing her daughter so much pain but she knew Katie need her.

Sharon effortlessly took off her blazer as she crossed the room to the opposite side of the bed. She quickly placed her blazer on her armchair and rounded the corner of the bed.

From the second she heard the key turn in her mother's door Catherine knew she couldn't keep it together. She hated needing her mother so badly but she couldn't deal with on her own anymore.

Two weeks ago she had taken one of her precious weekends during her summer full of work to drive three hours and visit David. They had talked a few days before and they were both excited to have a few days together.

David was renting an apartment with a few other guys from school who were all working for the local beaches during the busy summer months. That Friday Catherine got to the apartment a little later than she wanted and headed inside to find David. The apartment was empty so she walked towards David's room and as soon as she had opened the door her heart san in to her toes. There sitting astride David was the back of a girl Catherine was pretty sure she had never met. It was as if all the oxygen had been sucked off the planet and Catherine was left completely unable to breath or move.

It took less than a second for David to notice Catherin Standing in his bedroom doorway humiliated. And less than a second after that Catherine spun around and fled. David went after her but she didn't want to hear any of it rather she screamed at him to leave her alone.

Catherine got back in her car and sped off as fast as she could. She couldn't seem to get enough space between herself and the nightmare she had just walked in on. She tried unsuccessfully to push it all form her memory but all she could think about was the toned back of the woman sitting on top of her boyfriend.

"Stop it!" she thought "he's not yours anymore! Screw him!"

Catherine couldn't back to her rented hole of a bedroom fast enough. Once there she yanked on running shorts, a tank-top, and sneakers before barreling out the door and sprinting the mile and a half to the beach where she continued running up and down the coast, back and forth until her legs refused to carry her any further and she collapsed in the sand.

Catherine knew how to work off of anger she was an expert at it. Every time her and Ricky's father walked out on them again or she would get made fun of at school. There was always a moment of pure anger that propelled her forward and kept her functioning. It was when Catherine didn't have the energy to be angry anymore that she began to unravel. For a solid week-and-a-half Catherine stubbornly pushed ahead at work until she began to lose it.

It became exceedingly more difficult for her to keep from crying at random times, she despised going home to an empty room that practically begged her to have a panic attack, curled in the fetal position on the dingy floor, and running was no longer propelling her anger.

By the second Friday after discovering David Catherine called in sick to work and climbed into her car to drive the five-and-a-half hours to the safe walls of her mothers condo. She knew her mom would be beyond concerned to come home and find a crumpled shell of a person at her front door so Catherine drove to the Police Department so she wouldn't shock her mother too much. She hoped the visit would be short so she could just go home and curl into one of her mom's sweaters and not have a meltdown in the Police Department.

Of course the moment her mother saw her Sharon knew exactly what Catherine needed and she helped her daughter escape 1PP with little embracement.

Now she lay on her mothers bed on the verge of hyperventilating an not even able to tell her mom what happened.

Sharon seeing the state her daughter was in let out a distraught and overwhelmed "oh honey" as she lay down next to her broken child. Sharon positioned herself so she was parallel with her daughter but high enough on the pillows so that Katie could curl into her mother arms and burry her face in her mom's shoulder. Katie responded to her mothers touch by nestling her tear soaked face between the pillows on the bed and her mother's soft cheek so that she felt hidden from the world and she let her tears flow freely and struggled to breath in the familiar sent of her mother's perfume. As her body shook letting out all the grief she was holding in Sharon's arms wrapped around her daughter while her hands firmly and comfortingly stroked Katie's back. Katie weakly placed the arm she wasn't laying on around her mom and continued to cry as her mother told her over and over

"It's okay, it's okay I'm right here"

For the longest time all the words Katie could utter where

"He knew I was coming, he knew I was coming."

Eventually her crying subdued and Sharon helped her daughter sit up on the bed.

"Okay sweetheart tell me what happened."

Sharon passed her a box of tissues from the nightstand and Katie slowly started laying all the pieces out for her mother.

From the doorway Rusty felt like he was intruding on a private moment but he couldn't bring himself to leave. He watched as Sharon expertly comforted and took care of her daughter allowing Katie to take her time and go as slow as she wanted. Rusty watched as Catherine allowed her mom to take care of her and to Rusty it looked as if Catherine unloaded all of her problems onto her mother so that they could share them together and come to a resolution. Rusty expected Sharon to look stressed from taking on yet another persons issues but to his surprise she remained calm and peaceful. Then rusty realized that maybe Sharon was more concerned and stressed when she knew her children were keeping things from her. With this realization Rusty walked with new resolve to his room and then to the kitchen to start dinner.

The next day Catherine was gaining knew strength to back to work. Rusty noticed how much lighter and happier she looked and as nervous as he was he knew that what he was about to do was the right thing.

After school Rusty walked straight to the cabinet above his desk, took the armful of threatening letters out, and before he lost any of his resolve he walked straight towards Sharon's office. When he reached for the handle he felt a lump building in his throat out of fear and nerves, but he also began to feel the heavy weight of his burden being lifted off of him. As he entered, Sharon looked at him with a small smile that quickly turned into loving concern. She came around her desk so that they could sit together in the two chairs and as she placed her hand on his back encouraging him to sit down rusty immediately felt safe and he knew Sharon would do anything to fight for him.

- The End -


End file.
